Last week, St. Michael’s students wrote more than 15,000 lines of computer code. And they want more!
December 9 -15 was Computer Science Education Week in the United States. To raise awareness of the importance of computer science curriculum in schools, the Hour of Code initiative was launched. Coding helps to develop logic, structured thinking, and problem solving skills. St. Michael's students in grades two through eight spent one class period learning how to write computer code using activities and games on their iPads and computers in the technology lab.
Mr. Foehr, technology facilitator, underlined the importance of incorporating computer coding into our technology program here at St. Michael's. “Computer programs support everything we do.” He noted, “Computers on their own can’t do anything. It’s the applications people write for them that make them work ”. According to recent studies, by the year 2020 there will be 1,000,000 more computer programming jobs than programmers. That’s a $500 billion dollar opportunity!
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The response from the students was enthusiastic and has faculty members exploring ways to include code in projects outside the confines of the technology lab. The seventh grade is currently learning how to write html code and will be working on building webpages for projects.
A great resource with more information is http://csedweek.org. Not only can you learn more about the Hour of Code, you can also watch videos and try out some of the activities the students used to write their first lines of code.
